Overconsumption and overstimulation—the two inescapable symptoms of modern urban life—have magnified an age-old yearning for an escape from civilisation; into the lap of nature, to unwind amidst jungles and mountains. While this romanticisation might seem harmless, it shapes the way we build for ‘maximising views’, looking at nature from a rather consumerist perspective and confining it merely to its visual attributes. This view starkly contrasts with how indigenous and rural populations who either inhabit or engage with jungle regions as habitats more routinely perceive them. For them, jungles represent—among many other understandings—a living, labyrinthine environment to be revered for its raw power, complexity and giving nature. The perceptive differences become evident in the different approaches used in building practices in these regions - a practice of contextual congruence that makes the buildings inherently low impact, versus building for either ostentatious rapport signalling or profit maximisation by using readily available commercial building materials that happen to be foreign to this natural context.

An unambiguous correlation thus becomes evident in how our perception of nature directly affects our relationship with it. Built in the secluded rainforests of Costa Rica, Sinfonia Verde by Studio Saxe is a residential architecture project that honours these values of minimal building practices, as it gently floats over the jungle floor, almost disappearing with its permeability—an ideal way, it would seem, for inhabiting the jungle.

Building in proximity to the Corcovado National Park, which hosts approximately three per cent of the planet’s biodiversity, Sinfonia Verde is a residence for a pair of researchers—a climate scientist and a marine biologist—who profoundly influenced the project’s design. Frederik Dolmans, the project architect, told STIR, “The clients, who are deeply involved in climate change research and restoration activities, were very adamant that we create a building that was as low-impact and synchronised with the ecology as possible. With one of their projects being in the nearby Gulfo Dulce, they wanted to live in the jungle but also make sure that their habitation didn’t jeopardise the flora and the fauna around them.” While the form of the house reflects a sense of contemporaneity, its sensibilities seem deeply rooted in the natural context with an attempt to harmonise the built form with its surroundings. The house is disc-shaped with a significant level of permeability, and it does not sit snugly on the ground, instead floating on stilts on a heavily sloped site, preventing disruption to the groundwater and allowing animals and root systems to cross below.

“Sinfonia Verde was inspired by being on-site together with our clients,” the architect from the Costa Rican firm recounted in a conversation with STIR. “Just to get there was an adventure in itself. We had to trek through the jungle after a two-hour drive from the closest town. As we approached the site, we saw light shining down through the canopy, which is rare in the dense jungle full of tall trees. As we got closer, we realised that the opening had been created by a giant tree that had fallen on the property many years ago, and it had formed a clearing that bathed one in sunlight and gave a view of the passing clouds.”

He continued, “Standing in the centre of the clearing, your senses were immersed in the sounds of the jungle coming through and resonating around you—the howler monkeys in the distance, the buzzing insects, the leaves rustling, the rain falling through the canopies, a river in the distance. It was a panoramic visual and auditory experience. So the inspiration for Sinfonia Verde came from the desire to perceive the jungle in every direction, where you sense its density and energy, but then also create a space in the centre to stimulate a feeling of security where you’re slightly separated from the darkness. That gave rise to the idea of creating a disc, where you had an interface with the jungle on the external edge and a more contained, more secure private sanctuary in the centre.”

The residential design comprises two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen along with a laboratory library, interspersed with shaded outdoor terraces from which to observe wildlife. With jaguars, monkeys and other animals in the vicinity, the landscape architecture of the courtyard acts as a small haven amid an untamed ecosystem. In a region characterised by extreme heat and humidity, the permeable nature of the courtyard house then significantly encourages passive ventilation. The slatted screens allow fresh air to permeate into the home while also providing a sense of security. The hyperbolic form of the roof is designed to shelter the house from the region’s intense rain and sun while also directing the water into natural streams to not alter the micro-ecology of the area. The sustainable project is completely off-grid, generating power through solar panels and a hydro turbine in a nearby stream, which also supplies drinking water. The energy-efficient lighting and responsibly sourced materials such as teak and cork further reduce the environmental impact.

The contemporary architecture of the residence bisects the steeply sloping site from the centre, wherein at one side, the external face of the disc has a view of the undergrowth - the root systems, the mosses, the soils and the insects crawling over the ground; the opposite edge, on the other hand, is suspended high off the ground by about seven to eight metres, and gives a level view directly into the tree canopies teeming with life - the monkeys, parrots, macaws and the rustling leaves. The residential building captures the essence of the forest in the way that the clients were looking for when they chose to build in the jungle instead of the beach, especially including the sounds. They explain, “At first, we were hesitant about the round design, but it creates that immersion. A walk along the 360 degrees of the platform constantly shifts your attention: from skyline to secondary forest, to earthy terrain, to primary forest and back again to skyline. And along the way, the shifts in wildlife, lighting and sound create that rich subtle immersion in Costa Rica’s biodiversity that simply cannot be captured without a visit.”

Studio Saxe further highlighted the dangers of building in the jungle and how their planning accounted for the limitations and challenges in an official release, expounding on building in a remote and challenging location requiring careful planning and adaptation. They underscored the importance of working with a local contractor who had experience with the treacherous conditions of an earthquake zone, along with high precipitation, dramatic temperature differentials, salt in the air, and threatening wildlife. With no electricity or water connection on the property either and only a narrow footpath for access, all resources had to be transported over rivers and mountains by truck and then carried to the site. For the prefabricated structure, steel components were prepared in advance, delivered during the dry season and assembled by hand. The dynamic roof form was created with a woven grid of uniquely pitched beams and was then covered with fibre cement boards and a durable membrane to withstand the harsh environment. The project’s values thus deeply reflect the clients’ awareness of building in the jungle, and Studio Saxe’s approach exhibits the possibility of this harmonious coexistence.

Sinfonia Verde, Spanish for ‘Green Symphony’, thus fully embodies a contextual design approach that makes the footprint small enough for it to not stick out as a sore thumb of a statement architecture, which, akin to camouflaging, makes such a specimen of tropical modernism aspire to be one with nature. The project’s simple yet effective design is a product of innumerable smaller considerations that need to be evaluated when dealing with buildings in sensitive zones. An inherently sustainable approach, if made mainstream, could revolutionise how we continue to build into the future. And for that to be enacted, a radical change in the way we look at nature, building with instead of building on or for it, must be ushered or inspired. 

Project Details

Name: Sinfonia Verde
Location: Costa Rica
Architect: Studio Saxe
Area: 400 sq. m.